Did you know that some kindergartners take 5 standardized tests a year? I remember kindergarten as staying up through nap time and play kitchens, not Scan-trons. Since the passage and implementation of No Child Left Behind in 2002 and the Common Core Learning Standards in the 2012-2013 school year in New York State, the quantity of standardized tests in education has increased exponentially and become ludicrous. The role of these tests are to determine final “success” of teachers and students rather than notify teachers if students are struggling. While many believe that the use of standardized tests maximizes the value of class time by telling teachers what does and doesn’t need to be taught, current standardized tests aren’t “diagnostic” and, due to this, I firmly maintain that the use of these tests aren’t worth the use of class time in their administration. I wholeheartedly support this because the tests consume large quantities of valuable class time, aren’t diagnostic, and snub non-tested subjects. I will divulge more detail on how standardized tests consume valuable class time in the following paragraph.

The administration of standardized testing is not worth taking up valuable class time due to their widespread-ness and the absurd quantity of time needed to take the tests. For example, at least 33-38 days of school a year are consumed with standardized testing activities. At the lowest point, 18 days are consumed by unit pre- and post- tests in our math class. In addition, I estimate that 15-20 days of class are used for Common Core State Test preparation. A teacher of a state tested subject called these estimates “very conservative.” Furthermore, standardized testing is proliferating subjects that are unable to be standardized due to individual abilities. For example, students are taking standardized tests in art, music, and gym. I know that I do not equal with some of my classmates in physical, musical, or creative abilities. Those abilities are what the teacher notices in your class, while the standardized assessments being administered in those classes ask about how to find your resting heart rate. I may have poor physical abilities, but I know facts. The people who excel in those classes will be the ones to falter because they have above-standard abilities in the class, but that is not demonstrated on the test. Moreover, students take over 7 different types of standardized assessments a year, and students see the same test 2-3 times a year. In my 8th grade school year, I will take many different pre- and post- tests a year, Student Learning Objective assessments, 2 Common Core New York State Tests, the 9th grade Living Environment and Integrated Algebra Regents, the AIMSWeb fluency test, an NWEA exam in math and ELA, and the MAZE fluency/comprehension test, just to name those on the top of my head. At the lowest possible end of the spectrum, us in the 8th grade of Hackett Middle School will have taken at least 60 standardized assessments throughout the school year. Upon analysis of this evidence, it should become evident to one that standardized assessments are over-utilized in education, sacrificing valuable education of children and are thus a waste of time.

Standardized tests are not worth the sacrifice of class time in their current form and application because current assessments are not diagnostic. ironically, they are most often used to perform the opposite, and determine final “success” of students rather than help them get relevant assistance from teachers. I find it important to note that students take pre- and post- tests, but not a mid unit assessment to alert an educator to knowledge deficiencies of a student before time runs out to teach the curriculum. In addition, 1 teacher I briefly talked with said that teachers should be monitoring student progress on an ongoing basis and should not require a standardized assessment to alert them to student struggles. Many teachers share the sentiment that teachers should be alert to student struggles from student generated work, such as an essay, and should only administer a diagnostic exam to reaffirm their beliefs, rather than using a diagnostic exam to be the primary notifier of student knowledge outliers. A suggestion from many teachers is the use of a portfolio method. A portfolio in this case would contain student work, POD’s,and the like from throughout the year. These teachers support this method because they provide “visual” evidence of student progress throughout the year, or lack thereof. They also don’t require background knowledge of class curriculum to see progress, unlike standardized tests, which makes them “parent-friendly.” After having this information presented to you, I hope you believe that standardized assessments have no place in education because they don’t help teachers educate.

Standardized assessments aren't worth consuming valuable class time to administer because some classes lose their deserved time to educate and enlighten students. Teachers of Social Studies, Writers' Workshop, and other “Liberal Arts” courses fear losing class time to highly tested subjects. This fear leads them to believe there could be a domino effect, where students write off those classes because they aren't taught as frequently or for as much time as other classes. Many teachers of these subjects feel that the loss of their curriculum would be detrimental to students. They argue that the loss of their classes is taking away education's “concept and creativity” and students are losing the ability to “explore their interests and strengths.” Furthermore, certain schools with the most tests are losing creative classes, which is where they are needed the most. For example, Persistently Low Achieving schools (PLA's) and urban schools are more susceptible to loseing “Liberal Arts” and non-”STEM” (Science, Engineering, Technogoly, and Math) classes. They most frequently lose these classes due to additional required testing to place them in regards of scores to their “competent” and “proficient” counterparts. The ability to preform well on a standardized assessment is a rarity among these students, which as a result got them labeled as a PLA. Students at PLA's and urban schools often have limited abilities and access to higher education. These “Liberal Arts” classes give students the opportunity to identify their strengths that would allow them to find a job. No matter how educated & advanced a society is, we will always require jobs like garbage collectors, janitors, Peace Corp workers, artists, writers, musicians, etc. These jobs aren’t required or expected to be filled by college graduates, but will always be required. The children who can't afford greater education that need a way to support themselves may never discover their abilities that could secure a job for themselves. Upon analysis of this evidence, I drew the conclusion & I hope you as well deduce standardized tests aren’t worth consuming valuable class time because they consume other classes due time.

I would naive, immature, and idiotic if I did not acknowledge the existence of those who oppose my stance on this topic. A primary ideology of my detractors is that pre- and post- assessments are diagnostic. I rebut to those such utterances with the information that on the pre- assessments, students are aware that they are not graded on the test, and thus do not try. Furthermore, students are not expected to know any of the pre-test content, so the data is useless. The post-assessments are used to give a final rating of “success,” instead of telling teachers where to help students. A second principal of my opponents is that standardized assessments provide an “objective” and “free-of-bias” means of evaluating students. I argue that while the grading of the test may be free of bias, the test is biased against those with learning disabilities, English Language Learners, and those who are not “read-write learners.” These groups struggle with standardized assessments due to their inability to focus on tests for long periods, do not understand the exam at all, or do not learn or express their knowledge best through reading and writing. I hope that upon my presentation of my opponents beliefs, I have countered them well enough to convince your opinion to reside with mine.

On a concluding note, I hope that I have forced the revelation onto you that something that doesn't help a child's education (i.e. a standardized assessment) doesn't belong in their education. Such a thing especially does not belong when you take into consideration the amount of time required to administer such a thing, the widespread-ness of such an ineffective “tool,” for lack of a better word, the inability of the “tool” to provide valuable feedback to improve the relevancy of the child's education, and the fact that the child is not going to receive an education effective at making them a “well-rounded” individual. Standardized assessments have had their undeserved place in children's education for far too long. The tests have a negative impact on everyone who knows about them, whether you believe it or not. Students are impacted by losing time to be taught by teachers. Parents feel the effects of these assessments on their children. Taxpayers are having their funds used to pay private companies millions of dollars to develop these assessments. Property owners are adversely affected because if your school district is believed to be ineffective at educating students because of test scores, potential buyers of your property may be deterred from purchasing because they want their kids to receive a “top” education. A dis-creditment of these exams by parents, teachers, students, administrators, and all involved is the only way to rid them of education for good, and set education organizations on the path to develop and implement less stressful assessments and diagnostic assessments. Taxpayers, I plead with you to tell your government that you do not want your money going to private companies to make assessments that will eventually make students lack self-confidence in their abilities because of the privately developed exam. Parents, talk to each other, organize a mass pull-out of your children from these standardized assessments to show that there is no tolerance for wasting your children's time. Teachers, make it clear to your students that you do not care about these tests. When you say that, they will stop losing their self-confidence and will arrive at the realization that those tests do not mean s**t. Students, listen to your teachers when they say IT DOES NOT MEAN ANYTHING. All of the above mentioned groups may be rooting for your rights to a fair, individualized, and general education, but their support is worthless if you do not support yourself and each other. An education based off of an inaccurate WMD on self-confidence...


To put it in the words of Sweet Momma Brown, “Ain't nobody got time for that!”